Support Richard - Write the St. PeteTimes

[Anonymous]

beautiful letter.  
KEEP THEM COMMING!!!

[ehm]

On 2003-09-05 16:01:00, kupala703 wrote:

"Im finally happy to find a place that tells me im not delusional ,I still have nightmares about straight. At 15 yrs old i was an oldcomer in charge of a newcomer,sher was extremely violent and suicidal one morning she asked me to pull up the blinds,after i did so she smashed the window with her fist and picked up shards of glass and slit her wrists along with cutting oldcomers.I dont ever remember seeing so much blood and this vision still haunts me. I was in the program in stoughton more than a year , throughout that time i wished and prayed for death.I escaped shortly after that bloody incident only to be brought back kicking and screaming by oldcomer parents as well as my own mother.I was restrained on several occasions for"rocking out" which at that time was the only escape i felt i had.Luckily there was a new staff member that came in and diagnosed me with psychiatric problems and suicidal tendencies and believed i needed treatment.I dont know where this woman is but i am in great debt to her if given half the chance i would have taken my life for i could not live in that hell any longer.God bless all straight survivors and those tearing that hell down.

internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

--John Gilmour

_________________



[ This Message was edited by: kupala703 on 2003-09-05 16:14 ]"

Wow, I wish someone had done that for me! Welcome to this forum. Welcome from the bottom of my heart. It's so awesome to see more people finding comfort in the confirmation that we were not all alone. Very nice to meet you.  :smile:

[LeighBright]

Did you contact your friend at the FOX news network? What did he say?

[LeeBunnys]

Yeah, I did call mt friend at FOX. He works for the sports side of the news, but has some contacts. I also emailed him the link to this site. As soon as I hear anything, I'll be sure to post it. I don't know about any of you, but when you tell people about Straight, and what went on while you were in there, they almost look at you like you have 3 heads. You just don't understand unless you went throught it yourself. It reminds me of a Frank Zappa quote. "I'm sick of trying to explain myself, either you get it, or you don't"

[Antigen]

That's why it's so damned ironic, and I'm not sure it's coincidence at all, that Melvin and Walter are so tightly affiliated with the Hollocaust Museum.

See, up until the end of WWII, most Germans simply did not believe all the stories about the death camps, medical experiments, wrongful imprisonments, etc. Those number tatoos on all the death-camp inmates? Those were given to all convicted criminals upon entry to prison. That's what most people though of the Jews and Gypsies and homosexuals and other folks who landed up in the camps. They thought they were just run of the mill criminals insisting they were innocent and that the big old bad old legal system had just been too cruel and unfair. No one believed them.

Cops plant drugs on innocent people, either for retribution or in order to confiscate their property. No one believes them. Thank Betty Sembler and her organizations for lobbying successfully for expanded property forfeiture powers to fight the drug war.

People go to prison for decades on nothing more than the uncorroborated testimony of a paid informant; often a convicted criminal who's getting a lighter sentence in exchange for his or her testimony. No one believes the convict, everyone believes the paid snitch. Thank Betty Sembler for her hard work in setting up Area Drug Taskforces which rely heavily on confidential informants to bust adults who voluntarily buy and sell certain unpatentable drugs.

Private prisons and prison industry services are two of three major, recession and drought proof growth industries in this country. The other is the black market in illicit drugs. Is it coincidence that, soon after Melvin took over as ambassador to Australia and then to Italy that private prison corporations were set up for the first time in those countries w/ major contracts going to his buddy Jim Wackenhut? Maybe. But I doubt it.

Unwealthy kids who get busted for posession are ineligable for federal education loans. This policy targets just exactly the people that Melvin and Betty are most interested in putting to work in their prison labour programs. They have few viable options without the funding, even though they've demonstrated their ability, willingness and determination to better their own circumstances by qualifying for entry to accredited colleges and universities. Without the education, they're extremely likely to land up in prison where they make ideal candidates for those .50/hr jobs. Thank Betty Sembler and DFAF for fighting so hard to pass into law and then to prevent voters from overturing the law which denies education funding to kids who have been busted smoking a joint outside the locker room.

Millions of children grow up with a parent or two in prison for nothing more (and often less) than the same infractions that got us placed on front row. No one believes them any more than most Germans believed in the facts of the Hollocaust.

Come in the evening, or come in the morning; Come when you 're looked for, or come without warning.
-- Thomas O. Davis (1814-1845): The Welcome.

_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
American drug war P.O.W.
   10/80 - 10/82
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
Anonymity Anonymous

[LeeBunnys]

For a long LONG time, I would never tell anyone about my colorful past or my "troubled teens" :roll:
I feared the reactions I would get. The disbelief. When I copped out, I remember telling my parents (the people I trusted most) of the abuse and begged them not to take me back. They didn't even believe me. My own parents didnt believe me!! That disbelief made a huge impact on me, and the resentment grew and grew. As far as I'm concerned, Straight cost me precious time with my family. I'm 32 now, and a single mom, and I'm just now starting the healing process with my parents. I'm so grateful I found this board, its a great support.
Love to you all!!

[kpickle39]

This is what I wrote to the Times yesterday. Below is the response from the Times.


Good morning, My name is Michael Sherman and I
wrote a letter to the editor about the Richard Brad
bury/Melvin Sembler/medical device article. A num
ber of my friends also wrote letters to the editor. I can understand why the Times would not run all the letters, but I am wondering why the Times ran none of the letters? I have never written a letter to the editor before so I have no experience in how the Times or any other paper for that matter, makes a decision on what to run and not to run. The article seemed kind of one sided, with the Sembler attorney making Richard Bradbury out to be a nutcase. That is not true. Richard is a good man and definately not a nutcase. I guess my question to you is can you explain to me why none of our letters ran?

The child abuse that occured at Straight Inc is for real, many organizations and agencies were involved and culpable in the abuse. This includes the Pinellas,Hillsbourgh, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota county schools, Sheriffs depart's, the HRS, local Police departments and the state of Florida. But I'm rambling again. Sorry for that. Could some one answer my question? and also, I would appreciate it if the Times ran my letter.

Thanks so much, SIncerely, Michael Sherman,
Straight Survivor '78 - '80


This is his reply -

None of those letters were published because none of them seemed suitable for publication.

Most seemed to come from out of state and did
not include the required contact information. They may also have been the result of a Web site's asking people to write. Such orchestrated letter writing is not something we want to encour
age.

Those matters aside, the letters all wanted to
dredge up old issues about Straight and the abuses the writers and others suffered. I was not interested in revisiting those old issues. The news article allowed Richard Bradbury to air his grievances, and the letters simply wanted to add to what he said.

In addition, last year we ran a lengthy feature
article focusing on Straight survivors, including Mr. Bradbury. Following that article, we ran a letter from Mr. Bradbury in which he again had a chance to air his views.

Anger against Straight and the Semblers is under
standable, but we are not inclined to be running letters
about the matter repeatedly.


Sincerely,
Eric Lacker
letters editor,
St. Petersburg Times
letters@sptimes.com
(727) 893-8368

[animals all of us]

Just wrote to the Peter Times.  

Dear Editor:

Perhaps I have misread your reluctance to publish well deserved letters simply because of prior stories irregarding the crimes Mel Sembler has commited.  You are aware that this presupposes that you and yours (Saint Petersburg Times) accepts blood money from the Semblers.  In your heart and mind you factually know the crimes I write of, but just in case you have forgotten momentarily allow me to remind you what you know in humanity's and more importantly your own name to be true.  Rape, murder, false imprisonment just to name a few.  Starvation, truancy...shall I go on???  Medical malpractice, invasion of privacy, thousands of assaults on the misdemeanor and mostly felony levels, illegal seizure of property, denying of civil rights, perjury, tampering with evidence.  I am entirely certain that I have left out more than ten times More than ten documented crimes that Mel Sembler and his lackies have intended.
I am one among thousands who are not waiting for the day to come when your boss, Mel Sembler, will pay for his crimes exacted upon mostly children.  That day SHALL arrive when him and his can no longer hide behind the falsehoods of his government support.  The Sembler's represent all that is evil in the eyes of the law of the United States of America.  Mel and his wife Betty and their colleagues who created the cult Straight Incorporated and its likenesses have a new story for you to work on dear editor.  It would be worth your time to investigate the downfall of Sembler and his reckless sickening deadly kind.  
Maybe I misread, but please don't brush this letter, or any other letters made to support all who have been under the wake of a known terrorist off as merely casual additions to prior stories you've already accumulated for your repetoire.  That war on drugs, your uninformative stories about the criminal Mel Sembler, are just cover ups for the lies that make human's lives impossible to live out daily without some grudge or stain upon the sun.
When your son or daughter breathes today, when they breathe a healthy breathe of mentally stable air; remember that you and your kind are lucky to be on the laundered money end of Mel Sembler and his Third Reich.  
Perhaps I have misread your intentions when you said that you couldn't publish the stories to help Bradbury continue to heal himself against the travesties Sembler is continuing to cause.
If I misread that you are somehow in cohorts with the known terrorist Mel Sembler and my eyes deceived me, then I know that my heart and your heart are similar in that you will find a way to publish these letters not in aiding prior stories but because it is the good thing and the right thing to do for a more certainty of purpose in the faltering breed of true journalism.  
Publish under the obvious topic 'Semblers prey to their own justice', or something just like this.
Very truly yours, Anonymous.  Survivor of Straight Saint Petersburg '85 to '89.

[animals all of us]

Just wrote to the Peter Times.  

Dear Editor:

Perhaps I have misread your reluctance to publish well deserved letters simply because of prior stories irregarding the crimes Mel Sembler has commited.  You are aware that this presupposes that you and yours (Saint Petersburg Times) accepts blood money from the Semblers.  In your heart and mind you factually know the crimes I write of, but just in case you have forgotten momentarily allow me to remind you what you know in humanity's and more importantly your own name to be true.  Rape, murder, false imprisonment just to name a few.  Starvation, truancy...shall I go on???  Medical malpractice, invasion of privacy, thousands of assaults on the misdemeanor and mostly felony levels, illegal seizure of property, denying of civil rights, perjury, tampering with evidence.  I am entirely certain that I have left out more than ten times More than ten documented crimes that Mel Sembler and his lackies have intended.
I am one among thousands who are not waiting for the day to come when your boss, Mel Sembler, will pay for his crimes exacted upon mostly children.  That day SHALL arrive when him and his can no longer hide behind the falsehoods of his government support.  The Sembler's represent all that is evil in the eyes of the law of the United States of America.  Mel and his wife Betty and their colleagues who created the cult Straight Incorporated and its likenesses have a new story for you to work on dear editor.  It would be worth your time to investigate the downfall of Sembler and his reckless sickening deadly kind.  
Maybe I misread, but please don't brush this letter, or any other letters made to support all who have been under the wake of a known terrorist off as merely casual additions to prior stories you've already accumulated for your repetoire.  That war on drugs, your uninformative stories about the criminal Mel Sembler, are just cover ups for the lies that make human's lives impossible to live out daily without some grudge or stain upon the sun.
When your son or daughter breathes today, when they breathe a healthy breathe of mentally stable air; remember that you and your kind are lucky to be on the laundered money end of Mel Sembler and his Third Reich.  
Perhaps I have misread your intentions when you said that you couldn't publish the stories to help Bradbury continue to heal himself against the travesties Sembler is continuing to cause.
If I misread that you are somehow in cohorts with the known terrorist Mel Sembler and my eyes deceived me, then I know that my heart and your heart are similar in that you will find a way to publish these letters not in aiding prior stories but because it is the good thing and the right thing to do for a more certainty of purpose in the faltering breed of true journalism.  
Publish under the obvious topic 'Semblers prey to their own justice', or something just like this.
Very truly yours, Anonymous.  Survivor of Straight Saint Petersburg '85 to '89.

[kpickle39]

ok, if the Times won't run 'em, let's send letters to the Tampa Trib.  Here it the link.

http://tampatrib.com/opinion/lettertotheeditor.htm

I'm sending mine today.